


A Friend in Need

by MK_Yujji



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 03:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5612851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MK_Yujji/pseuds/MK_Yujji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bones is having a bad day, but Jim has a solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Friend in Need

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lasairfhiona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasairfhiona/gifts).



> This was written for the 2015 happy_trekmas exchange for lasairfhiona. 
> 
> I hate the title so, so much, but was drawing a complete blank right up to time to turn the fic in, so... :-/ Suggestions for a different title are very welcome.

Graduating from Star Fleet Academy in three years instead of four was perhaps a boast that James T. Kirk shouldn't have made. It was doable - if only barely - but it just wasn't any _fun_.

Sighing, he pushed his books away and rubbed his eyes. He had twice the course load of any other cadet he knew. Added to the extracurriculars he'd taken up and it was a wonder he ever found time to get laid anymore.

Which wouldn't necessarily be a big deal if not for the tiny niggling little fact that it left him with damn little to distract him from his growing attraction to his roommate. Ordinarily, he'd have just pursued that attraction to its inevitable conclusion, gotten it out of his system and moved on.

Ordinarily he didn't really care whether or not doing so would have burned any bridges behind him. It was easy enough to hack into the system and switch his room assignment if things got awkward in the end.

Except…

Jim huffed and tipped his chair back onto its back legs. 

Except that the roommate in question was Bones and he couldn't bring himself to risk burning that particular bridge.

Bones _got_ him in a way that few others had ever bothered to even try. He neither fawned over the Kirk name or tried to pussyfoot around what it meant for Jim. He was gruff and sour, but his hands were gentle when they patched up the consequences of some of Jim's less spectacular attempts at socializing and he never left Jim wondering exactly where they stood with each other.

He was the kind of steady presence that Jim had never had before and he didn't want to risk that.

The door chime startled him into almost falling and his arms flailed out to catch the edge of his desk.

"You're gonna break your neck like that one of these days," Bones groused half-heartedly. 

Jim twisted to get a better look at his friend and that was enough to actually send him toppling to the floor. "Ow."

He lay there for a second before scrambling back up so that he could peer more closely at Bones. "You okay, man? That would usually warrant a five minute lecture on chair safety and situational awareness. You barely even huffed at me."

Rolling his eyes, Bones dropped his bag down on his bunk and sank down beside it. He sat there, slumped and rumpled, looking more wrung out and defeated than Jim had ever seen him. "What's the point? You're just going to go out and get yourself killed in space anyways."

That was excessively fatalistic even for Bones. Jim considered his homework for a second before waving it off as far less important than whatever was wrong with his friend. Crossing the room, he pushed the bag over onto the floor and sat down close enough to press their shoulders together. 

Usually, that would have set off another rant about tripping hazards and keeping shit off the floor, but Bones just sighed and pressed back.

Part of Jim was warmed by the simple idea that they'd reached the point where Bones was willing to take comfort from him, but mostly he was more worried that he'd already been. Leonard McCoy was not the sort of man who just let things pass without commentary. "Now you wanna tell me what's wrong or are you going to make me guess?"

The silence stretched between them before Bones seemed to practically fold in on himself. "I flunked the flight simulator again."

"Oh…" Jim bit his lip. 

As a doctor, Bones shouldn't ever be in a position to be forced to fly the ship, but all cadets were required to have the very basics. Just in case. And in the case of Bones and his truly impressive fear of both flying and teleportation, it had been deemed especially necessary just to get him ready for the reality of having to serve onboard a ship.

"Yeah, 'oh'," Bones grumbled. 

He'd already failed it four times in the two years since he'd signed up. He could only take the test twice a year and his own coursework and experience had set him up to graduate in the same three year span as Jim… assuming he ever qualified to step foot on a ship.

Star Fleet wouldn't even let him take a ground billet if he couldn't pass the simulator, nevermind following Jim onto a ship like they'd planned one night over too many drinks and not enough sleep.

Jim hesitated for a moment, then shifted to slide an arm around Bones' waist and hook his chin over his shoulder. He'd established a lack of personal space early on in their association together, thankfully. Bones had gotten progressively less prickly about it to the point where he barely even seemed to notice half the time.

Now he just sighed and leaned into it.

"I know you wanted to do it on your own," Jim said carefully, hoping he wasn't about to offend Bones. They'd actually fought about this subject a handful of times over the last two years. Bones hated the idea that he might be anything less than 100% independent and Jim didn't understand why such a usually reasonable human being couldn't just accept that this one time he might need help with something. "But I really don't want you to wash out, Bones. Not over something I _know_ that I can help you with."

He tensed a little. This was usually the point where Bones exploded. The last time, it had taken almost a week before they'd been able to speak to each other again without sparking further arguments. 

Jim hated fighting with Bones.

"Maybe you're right."

"What's that?" Jim asked, grin spreading as he leaned away and pretended to clean out his ear. "I think I heard Leonard McCoy say that I was _right_ about something, but I'm not sure… Maybe-"

Bones just rolled his eyes and shoved Jim over. "Infant."

The slump disappeared and Bones lost the look of abject hopelessness. Like success was a done deal and he trusted Jim to make sure of it. 

Beaming, Jim hopped up and hurried over to dig a plexi out of his desk drawer. "Okay, so I worked these up ages ago, so I'll need to get your most recent results to see if we need to tweak anything, but- what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

He wasn't even sure how to describe the look on Bones' face, half affection and exasperation mixed something that might have been disbelief and something else that he couldn't identify. 

"You've had those the whole time?" Bones asked, in a tone Jim wasn't used to hearing.

It made him more than a little nervous. He could see how having them already made it look like he'd never expected Bones to pass, but he hadn't really meant it that way. "Uh… yes?"

Bones just shook his head and smiled. "Thank you, Jim."

_fin_


End file.
